WIZZAIR FLIGHT CANCELLATION COMPENSATION DENIED DUE TO EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES

sarah_joy8

Hi all. I hope someone can help. I am helping my son claim for a cancelled flight with Wizz Air, flight from Milan-Gatwick, no notice given, kept giving them delayed notice until cancelling in the end. It was midnight by the time they were told. We had to get him an alternative flight early hours of the morning and he had to travel to another airport and slept there. I put in a claim using the Resolver tool. They replied with this:

As this incident could not be predicted by our company, regardless of our efforts to avoid it, point (14) and Article 7 of European Regulations 261/2004 exempt the carrier from the obligation to provide compensation in case delay of the flight was caused by an extraordinary circumstance. Therefore, we regret to inform you that no compensation is due.

In regards to your inquiry, I regret to inform you that according to General Conditions of Carriage (GCC) Wizz Air cannot be held liable for consequential damages. Please find the relevant article of our GCC below:

17.1.6. Wizz Air is not liable for loss of profits, indirect or consequential damages. The limitations of liability of these General Conditions of Carriage are accepted by the Passenger in consideration of the amount paid for Wizz Air’s services.

Please note that Passengers must be aware of these conditions as our General Conditions of Carriage have to be accepted during the booking procedure.

The Customer Services Department, as well as our Passengers, is obligated to follow these provisions. Therefore, despite our best intentions, we are not able to reimburse any of your consequential costs.

What to do next please? Not only did we lose the money for the cancelled flight, the whole ordeal cost us an extra £400 and serious distress. Thanks in anticipation.

Brie

Did they at any point say why there was a delay?  And what (assuming it might be different) the extraordinary circumstances were?

onashoestring

Firstly which is the higher monetary value the refund or the cost of the alternative flight ?

You are entitled to choose either a refund or re-routing - The airline must pay you for this regardless of the reason for the cancellation.

You can claim for this directly from Wizzair by logging into your Wizzair account and completing the online claim form https://wizzair.com/en-gb/information-and-services/prices-discounts/refunds-and-compensations

In addition your son may be  entitled to claim compensation on top -but this will depend on whether the reason for cancellation was within the airlines control - 

Voyager2002

onashoestring said:

Firstly which is the higher monetary value the refund or the cost of the alternative flight ?

You are entitled to choose either a refund or re-routing - The airline must pay you for this regardless of the reason for the cancellation.

You can claim for this directly from Wizzair by logging into your Wizzair account and completing the online claim form https://wizzair.com/en-gb/information-and-services/prices-discounts/refunds-and-compensations

In addition your son may be  entitled to claim compensation on top -but this will depend on whether the reason for cancellation was within the airlines control - 

I agree completely with this.

In addition, the airline was obliged to provide "care" , including food, communication and a hotel for an overnight delay.

JPears

Alas, resolver is not the way to go. Most airlines will ignore any claim raised through Resolver. You have to use the airline's own claim webpage.

As previously stated, Wizzair are responsible for the cost of replacements flights, whatever the reason for the cancellation of flights. This is covered under EC 261/2004 regulation. Or the UK equivalent, post brexit adopted laws.

Compensation due unless and EC.Wizzair don't state why they consider the event "unpredictable". Note - unpredictable is not the same as EC - which is essentially limited to - security issue, ATC problems, waether (only affecting the actual flight concerned) and sometimes bird strike.

sarah_joy8

All I can say is that this was the time when Gatwick was experiencing shortage of staff and a lot of flights were being cancelled.